You might find yourself asking, “What does Socola mean?”
Good—that’s exactly what CEO and chief chocolatier Wendy Lieu hoped her future customers would wonder when she named her business the word for “chocolate” in Vietnamese.
At Socola, you won’t find Dubai style—and you won’t need to. They are doing their own delicious thing with inventive and interesting flavors that incorporate home and heart.
Take their Little Saigon Box, a “complete Vietnamese meal” in chocolate form that includes flavors like lychee, Sriracha, phở spices, creamy durian, jasmine tea, guava, passionfruit, cognac, and cà phê sữa (Vietnamese chicory coffee with condensed milk). Each is a nod to Lieu’s heritage and a testament to her artistry.
Wendy Lieu, CEO and chief chocolatier at Socola Chocolates(Courtesy of Socola Chocolates)
Lieu herself is unquestionably bright and intentional in her choices. She’s radiantly warm, business-savvy, endlessly creative—and as delightful as the confections she and her team so carefully craft.
Lieu’s family immigrated to the Bay Area from Vietnam in the early 1980s, eventually settling in Santa Rosa. Her entrepreneurial spirit likely stems from her parents, who opened a nail salon there across from a See’s Candies store. It was the daily ritual of stopping by for a free sample, paired with the stacks of holiday chocolate gifts from friends and clients, that sparked Lieu’s curiosity for cocoa. Surrounded by boxes of chocolates with no expiration dates or flavor guides, the 19-year-old began to wonder what a fresh chocolate might taste like.
“I found a recipe in Gourmet magazine and made a mocha espresso chocolate truffle. I made it the classic French style—just coated in cocoa powder—and it was so good. It tasted completely different,” Lieu recalls. “It’s like eating Chips Ahoy your whole life and then finally biting into a fresh chocolate chip cookie. Totally different.”
Initially self-taught, Lieu’s curiosity quickly grew into a hobby, then a business, and eventually a full-fledged passion. “I wasn’t able to go to Europe and apprentice under master chocolatiers, so I taught myself,” she says.
The epitome of a young entrepreneur, Lieu teamed up with her younger sister, Susan, who was on the board of Santa Rosa’s Downtown Market. Together, they began selling chocolates at the market during summers when Lieu was home from studying at UC Davis.
Customers’ suggestions—“make a coffee chocolate” or “try a chili chocolate”—inspired the sisters to expand their offerings and gave them the idea to infuse the candy with their heritage. Instead of just coffee, she made a Vietnamese coffee truffle; instead of just chili, she used Sriracha.
Chocolates from Socola (Daniel Lee)
The quest to achieve her ultimate goal—creating a durian chocolate—led Lieu to a course at the Culinary Institute of America in St. Helena. With no recipe to reference, she tried adapting one for a crème fraîche chocolate since, when whipped, durian can achieve the same consistency. It worked, and it was awesome—it still is.
After graduating from UC Davis, Lieu worked full-time in management consulting but continued to make chocolates by order and around the holidays. The “itch kept coming,” Lieu says. “Something was telling me I still needed to work on it.”
When her sister traveled to Vietnam to work on sustainable cocoa developments, Lieu realized that the chocolate they were now growing in the country gave them a new connection to it. She once again began dedicating “some time” to the chocolate dream—a plan that turned into working full time at her job while also making chocolates two days a week in the kitchen of her sister-in-law’s donut shop.
Exhausted but gaining traction selling at places like Whole Foods Market and Bi-Rite Market, Lieu enrolled in Tante Marie Pastry School just to be sure that she was “really into chocolates.”
“I can't live my life not knowing that I didn't give it everything,” she says. After a brief stint exploring croissants, she was ready to make a serious commitment.
Enlisting the help of the Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center, Lieu soon left her full-time job, rented a kitchen in South San Francisco, and started selling chocolates wholesale before ultimately deciding she’d be better off doing everything under one roof.
“I just wanted to have one location where we made everything, where we had all of our packaging all in one facility,” she said. “I wanted to find a place where customers could see us making the chocolate and where we could have a little retail area.”
Wendy Lieu being interviewed by Vietnam TV California earlier this year(Courtesy of @socolachocs)
In 2014, Socola opened its sweet little shop in SoMa. Last year, they opened a second location at the San Francisco International Airport. They sell their wide range of confections at both, including special collections for the Lunar New Year and Mid-Autumn Festival. The Vietnamese chocolate Soda Chanh bar is inspired by a favorite fizzy Vietnamese drink (and incorporates white chocolate, lime, and Pop Rocks), while flavors closer to home include the Five Spice Peanut Dark Chocolate bar, a collaboration with House of Nanking, and a San Francisco collection featuring a Fernet Liqueur truffle.
Lieu’s favorite? The jasmine tea truffle and the toasted coconut black sesame bar.
Outside of the kitchen, Lieu’s many community involvements include participating in the East Cut Community Benefit District, mentoring through Enterprise for Youth internships, consulting small business owners at Renaissance, and supporting the Catalyst Foundation and other AAPI organizations—but it’s her chocolates’ ability to touch others that’s still one of her greatest sources of pride.
“The spark of joy you see on people's faces when they try something unexpected or receive it as a gift is so amazing,” she says.
For those of us who dare to follow a recipe—or a dream—it’s people like Lieu that are the spark.
// 535 Folsom St. (SoMa) and SFO Airport Shop, Terminal 3, Boarding Area E (San Francisco), socolachocolates.com
Flavor-loaded chocolate bars at Socola(Daniel Lee)
